Chloe Lloyd, ORCA research associate, describes the process of collecting muck from the C-24 Canal in Port St. Lucie to find most prevalent sources of water pollution.
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These bottlenose dolphins, filmed off the coast of South Africa, are among the stars of 'Planet Earth: Blue Planet II,' which premieres on five AMC networks on Jan. 20.(Photo11: Steve Benjamin, BBC)

Did you watch the first episode of "Blue Planet II" with your mouth hanging open, shaking your head back and forth in amazement?

According to a Treasure Coast scientist who worked on a portion of the show's second episode, prepare to be mesmerized again.

Edie Widder, senior scientist and CEO of the Ocean Research & Conservation Association in Fort Pierce, was the chief scientist during a mission to find and observe Humboldt squid along the coast of Chile. The footage filmed during the October 2016 trip will be featured in Saturday's episode, "The Deep," which airs at 9 p.m.

Edie Widder, CEO and senior scientist with the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, was the chief scientist during a mission to Chile to film Humboldt squid which will be featured on "The Deep," the second episode of BBC America's "Blue Planet II."(Photo11: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

One goal of "Blue Planet II" — and what makes the seven-part British documentary so hypnotic — is to show the behaviors of sea creatures in their natural habitats without being obtrusive.

And that's part of the reason Widder was asked to be involved with the show.

Technology she developed in 2012 enabled her, and several other scientists, to film the giant squid in its natural habitat for the first time.

Widder's successes with the Eye-in-the-Sea, a deep-sea camera observatory that she developed to explore the deep ocean unobtrusively, uses low-light imaging in combination with far-red illumination that is invisible to most deep-sea animals, according to the ORCA website.

The primary motivation for its development: to observe animals that normally would be disturbed or frightened by the white lights and noisy thrusters used on standard observation platforms.

This inconspicuous approach to science paid off for Widder and the team in Chile.

"We'd been seeing some squid but no huge congregations," Widder said. "You always try to get someplace where you know you will see high numbers of animals."

Humboldt squid are large, predatory creatures that live in the Humboldt Current in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The current produces some of the most successful commercial fisheries in the world, so Widder and her team were confident.

"But there's never any guarantee," she said.

Luck plays a big part, too.

The footage of squid hunting and feeding — captured during the team's last dive and what viewers will see during Saturday's episode — is what the documentary series calls "blue-chip footage," or the perfect shot.

"We were able to get that last sequence of hunting, so it was a very special time," she said.

"Blue Planet II" was the most viewed television show in the United Kingdom in 2017, and more than 3 million Americans tuned in to the first episode Jan. 20.

That excites Widder.

"People won't protect what they don't know exists, so it's important to get the word out," she said.

Maureen Kenyon is TCPalm's trends reporter, keeping residents of the Treasure and Space coasts updated on hot topics and happenings locally, statewide and nationally. Want to start a conversation? Have a story to tell? Send an email to maureen.kenyon@tcpalm.com, call 772-221-4249 or follow her on Twitter @_MaureenKenyon_.